Greek Football Report - Part 3: Attendance Trends in the Super League (2009-2020)
In the third installment of AGONAsport’s Greek Football Report, we take a look at the attendance of the Greek Super League since 2009 and examine the trends and analyze the numbers involved.
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Pre-crisis highs
Just before the crippling impact of the Greek financial crisis, there were nearly 8,000 spectators per match in the Greek top-flight. The exact number of 7,906 fans per game was a respectable number that would today put the Greek Super League near the top 20 leagues in the world for attendance.
Not surprisingly the crisis ushered in a steady decline over the next few years following the average of 7,906 from the 2009/10 season. The next season saw attendance drop 13.7% to an average of 6,821 per game. The slide continued with percentage drops of 20.2%, 8.9%, and 19.1% over the next three seasons. The chart below shows average attendances from 2009 to the current season and details the precipitous falls in attendance from 2009 for several seasons.
The nadir of 2014/15
The fall from grace from the 2009/10 numbers was completed in the 2014/15 campaign. It was then when average attendance fell to 3,383. That was another 15.7% drop from the previous year and represented an incredible 57.2% drop from 2009/10. In five years, the Greek game had lost half of its supporters in the stadiums across the country.
Average attendance went up to just shy of 4,000 in 2015/16 before another decrease, albeit slight, during the 2016/17 campaign.
A positive trend emerges
In recent seasons, the number of fans attending matches has continued to grow. After a 7.59% increase to 4,238 fans per game in 2017/18, the last two seasons have seen even greater gains made. The end of the 2018/19 campaign saw an average of 5,433 per game, a massive jump of 28.2%. This led to the current campaign where before the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the season, the average attendance had grown to 6,626, a further increase of 22% from the previous year.
Big clubs with the lion’s share
The traditional big clubs in Greece are responsible for a large percentage of the overall attendance figures. In fact, Olympiacos are 7th in all of European football with the highest contribution by a single club as a percentage of league attendance. The Piraeus club represented 27.5% of the Super League’s total attendance between 2013-2018 according to a study by the The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) Football Observatory.
That same study revealed that during the same five-year period, the top three clubs in the country made up a whopping 59.2% of the total attendance per game, good enough for 7th in all of Europe.
SUMMARY
The years following the crisis saw huge drops in attendance numbers. Greece’s economic collapse certainly played a leading role in the dwindling numbers from 2009 to 2015. As the country slowly started the road to recovery there was a steady uptick in the people going to football matches. The 6,626 average this season is the highest since 2009, though that still represents a total drop of 16.19% in that decade period. There does appear to be a sustained upward trend to the figures, though there is not yet a full recovery from the pre-crisis or early crisis period.
There are other factors that affect the numbers as well. For starters, there remains a widespread notion that Greek football is not ‘clean’. Allegations of corruption and match-fixing are still prevalent amongst supporters and while that continues there is undoubtedly many supporters who choose not to go to matches.
Greece’s stadia are behind the majority of Europe with regard to upkeep and modern touches. Certainly the state of many of the country’s stadiums is not conducive to drawing more football fans or other citizens in general. Again, the financial aspect looms large in this sector.
There are positives however. Certainly, AEK’s return to the top-flight and Aris’ last season have helped give the numbers a boost. While seeing teams from a variety of places from around the country is generally a good thing, having the nation’s biggest and most well-supported clubs in the top-flight is a must.
The Super League itself deserves some credit for the increase in attendances over the last few seasons. The organization seems very active in the marketing and promotion of the league and there are hopeful results so far.
Undoubtedly challenges remain. Greece’s plummeting ranking in the UEFA coefficients could continue to cause problems. Fewer sides making European runs will equal to less income which will affect everything from player purchases to the overall stadium experience for the supporter. That said, the numbers tell a story where, for the time being, having cautious optimism is not unwarranted.
